BILL NUMBER: SCR 55	CHAPTERED  04/10/00

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER   41
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   APRIL 10, 2000
	ADOPTED IN SENATE   APRIL 6, 2000
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY   MARCH 16, 2000
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   MARCH 9, 2000

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Johannessen

                        JANUARY 11, 2000

   Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 55--Relative to POW Recognition
Day.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 55, Johannessen.  POW Recognition Day.
   This measure would designate April 9, 2000, as POW Recognition Day
in California.




   WHEREAS, Men and women have long answered our nation's call to
duty and undertaken their mission as members of the United States
Armed Forces; and
   WHEREAS, Our military personnel have gone to battle in countries
far and near to defend the ramparts of liberty and resist the agents
of tyranny; and
   WHEREAS, Hostile forces throughout the world continue to subvert
the political and economic freedom for which American soldiers have
sacrificed their lives; and
   WHEREAS, Since World War I, there have been some 142,257 Americans
captured and interned under deplorable conditions; and
   WHEREAS, Most of our military personnel have returned home as
heroes and proud veterans, but sadly another 92,457 other Americans
were lost in combat, and their remains never recovered; and
   WHEREAS, On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to
General Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox Court House, Virginia; and
   WHEREAS, General King, the American Army General who surrendered
the largest number of military fighting personnel ever surrendered at
one time to an enemy force, was a student of history who chose April
9 of 1942, to surrender; and
   WHEREAS, The surrender of American and Filipino troops by General
King on April 9, 1942, on the Bataan Peninsula led to the infamous
Bataan Death March; and
   WHEREAS, April 9 was chosen by Congress to be the national day for
honoring prisoners of war; and
   WHEREAS, Each year, citizens throughout America join in
observances to honor and recognize former American prisoners of war,
and to remember those individuals still unaccounted for, so that we
may rededicate ourselves to finding a resolution to their status that
will allow their families to have the peace they deserve; now,
therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates April 9,
2000, as POW Recognition Day in California; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
